The Last Gasps of Literate Christianity

Michael Spencer, who writes on the Internet Monk blog, argues in his article “The Last Gasps of Literate Christianity” that the Bible is irrelevant to average Chrisitians today. The Bible no longer defines their worldview, and they no longer understand that it is God speaking to us, it is no longer the source of truth, and no longer “defines, limits, guides, or significantly influences thinking.”

In othe words, average Christians have become biblically illiterate, and Spencer argues that we are coming to the “end of a form of Christian faith where clergy, laity, scholar, student, preacher and pew all looked to the written word as God’s means of communication, and ordered their lives and worship accordingly. I am talking about the end of a form of particularly Protestant Christianity that was largely centered around the Bible.”

Average Christians have replaced the Bible with Christian music, videos, and how-to books that offer a distorted, comfortable, and sanitized understanding of God and our place in the kingdom.

Adding to this, Spencer says, are preachers who no longer preach God’s Word but offer up four-point sermons long on practical living and short on biblical depth.